MILWAUKEE — Basketball games can’t be won or lost simply by what happens in the first few minutes, but Game 2 sure felt like it got away from the Toronto Raptors quickly.

It was a tale of two starts, with Giannis Antetokounpo rampaging out of the gate about as well as any player possibly could (he followed his miss with an emphatic, two-handed dunk on the heads of the Raptors, a vicious block of Marc Gasol and then another dunk in the span of about a minute) and Gasol turning in his worst moments as a Raptor right from the jump, the early going was as ghastly as it gets for the visitors.

Gasol was irritated after a poor game in the opener. He was even more upset after one of the worst games of his career. He always speaks first post-game, but might have set a new land-speed record after this one. The big Spaniard fell on his sword.

“The beginning kind of set us in a real bad spot and we couldn’t get a grip of the game early on and I take full responsibility for that,” Gasol said. “I played really (badly) and that set the tone.

Gasol, like all of the Raptors not named Kawhi Leonard, to be frank, seemed overwhelmed by Giannis at the rim, who parried away his attempts. While he thankfully wasn’t quite as hesitant to shoot as he has been, the results (1-for-9 from the field, including 0-for-2 on three-point attempts) just were not there.

“We will attempt to bounce back on Sunday. That’s all that matters right now. That’s all that matters.”

The shots haven’t been falling for some time now. Toronto’s actually doing an OK job getting back, but Giannis is a steamroller.

The defence? Meh, forcing only seven turnovers and allowing 60% two-point shooting isn’t going to cut it. The rebounding battle wasn’t close (53-40 for Milwaukee). Toronto’s 13 turnovers weren’t a terrible number, but not when the team only managed 19 assists.

NOT ENOUGH JOINERS

Leonard was spectacular again, but you could sense his frustration when he’d make a good pass only to see a teammate miss the shot. Eventually, he just forwent the passing and did the scoring himself.

With Gasol discombobulated, Pascal Siakam ineffective, Kyle Lowry misfiring after his great Game 1 and Danny Green still off, some bench help could have been useful.

Too few players are being asked to do too much. A lot of that is on Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster. The roster isn’t deep enough.

In fairness, nobody saw Jeremy Lin forgetting how to play basketball or Anunoby’s non-stop injury woes, so maybe it just is what it is.

ANOTHER TOUGH NIGHT

Really liked Siakam’s answer when he was asked about being officially nominated for most improved player. Siakam had just completed another frustrating night that saw him enveloped by Antetokounmpo and fouling too often at the other end. He managed to both acknowledge that while appreciating the moment.

“Well, it certainly didn’t look like it tonight,” Siakam said with a laugh when told of the nomination.

“But it’s great. It’s amazing for me from where I come from, to be on this stage and just feel blessed every night. To even have the opportunity to be in that category is just amazing and it’s important that kids like me, from where I’m from (Cameroon), can just look at me and kind of believe in themselves,” he said.

“That’s what I take from it. The journey and knowing where I come from and how hard I’m working to be where I am so maybe kids can look at that and do the same.”

Siakam has gone from tussling with countryman Joel Embiid, to an equally dominant defensive player of the year in Giannis. You can fully understand why the results aren’t coming. He needs to find a way, though.

ALL IS NOT LOST?

The Toronto brass (and many of the players) believe this one is a long way from being over. See what happens at home and go from there. The belief is that in the third quarter of Game 2, the Raptors figured out a bit more about how they need to play against the Bucks.

There seems to be support for a lineup change or two though, something Nurse hinted about in his conference call. Stay tuned on that.

On the player’s side, the belief is that ISO-ball is not going to get it done against the Bucks. The attack is going to need to be diverse and shots just finally have to start falling.

AROUND THE RIM

Milwaukee is so good that it doesn’t seem all that fair that Giannis gets away with travels here and there or fouls that go uncalled too. Plus Ersan Ilyasova, great in Game 2, gets reputation charge calls even when he’s clearly still moving (like his second one, which went against Leonard and was egregiously wrong). Of course, Leonard was given a call or two later that was unearned too, makeup calls happen … Toronto was in all kinds of foul trouble, some of it earned, some of it gifted to the Bucks. The Raptors need to find a way to not let Ilyasova’s savvy defence get to them. But it’s tough. The Bucks are tough, long, athletic, physical and aggressive. Nurse would add that he also counted 15 illegal defence situations when he re-watched the tape, with Bucks centres planting in the lane … More than one Raptor said they hope the foul calls start to go their way more as the series shifts to Toronto … Did you know Milwaukee only lost two games in a row once all season? It was in April on the road at Utah and Phoenix … Why did Jason Kidd get a prominent coaching job with the Lakers again? The Bucks went from 27th in the NBA in three-pointers made, last in defensive rebounding rate and 18th in defensive efficiency to second, second and first under Mike Budenholzer.

POWELL COMING THROUGH

There’s not a long list of Toronto Raptors outperforming expectations through two games against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Norman Powell belongs there, though. He hit a couple of three-pointers in the opener and was solid defensively and then was part of the group that scored 39 points in the third quarter of Game 2, turning a laugher into something slightly more interesting.

“I thought Norm had a good game and his athleticism was noticeable,” head coach Nick Nurse said on a conference call Saturday.

“There’s times out there they’ve got a lot of athletes out there and it’s nice to be able to match the speed. Defensively, he was good and just playing hard, you know, he was into people and up-guarding and blocking people out with his physicality. Some of the things that we also need. So he should play a big role here going forward.”

Powell scored 14 points, grabbed four rebounds, had a couple of assists, a pair of three-pointers and one turnover in Game 2 for a bench that has been far too quiet.

“I had planned on using him a lot more in the rotation,” Nurse had said after the game.

Powell had not exceeded 10 minutes of action in any of his four previous games.

“I think he fits in this series a little more with his speed and strength and athleticism, his ability to take it off the bounce. We’re going to need that. It was good to get him going, and I would imagine going forward he’ll be a critical part of the series for our rotation.”

Powell is trying to play more under control, keeping his turnovers down while still being aggressive.

“I’ve learned enough and I know enough to not really worry about going out there and forcing it because sometimes you end up in a worse situation,” Powell said before Game 2.

“Go out there and follow the game flow, take what the game’s giving me and living with that.”

The 14 points by Powell are his third-most ever in a playoff game. He starred against the Bucks a couple of years ago, most notably with his 25-point outing that included four three-point makes and five trips to the free throw line.

NO PANIC FROM RAPTORS

The Raptors continue to say the right things, at least, ahead of what once again will be the biggest game of the season on Sunday at Scotiabank Arena.

“We never really panic around here. It’s the playoffs, you can’t get too high or too low,” backup guard Fred VanVleet told the Toronto Sun.

“Obviously you never like to see a performance like (Game 2), but it happens. If you play basketball long enough you’ll get your butt kicked once or twice. It’s the first to four. They did what they were supposed to do, got the first two and now it’s our job to go get one on Sunday,” he said.

VanVleet added that there was no special halftime wakeup call delivered by either head coach Nick Nurse or one of the players that sparked a huge third quarter from the team.

“Just a little bit more fight, a little more effort obviously,” VanVleet said.

“You never want to wait until you’re down 25, but you just try to ramp up the game and the speed and that’s just human nature. They probably relaxed a little bit, we ramped ours up and were able to have a big quarter there to give us a chance. They had a 30-point fourth quarter. It’s hard to dig yourself out of holes like that, but liked what we saw some in the third quarter there.”

A more consistent effort will be needed for 48 minutes on Saturday against a rampaging Bucks team.

Milwaukee has only lost once in the playoffs and has already tied the NBA record for 20-point wins in a single post-season, six.

“We didn’t play very well. They came out right from the jump and kind of jumped us. It was tough to get back in the game after that,” VanVleet said.